White Christmas Ornament

I made Christmas tree ornaments for two swaps. This is one of them. The other was also white but with a different beading pattern. For some reason (duh!), I neglected to take a picture of that one. I hope the recipient of this one doesn’t read my blogs since it won’t be swapped until next Monday.

The one not pictured went to a member of our fiber arts guild. Tomorrow I’ll post a photo of the one I received. One of the most interesting ornaments was knitted lace over a glass ball. Someone (you know who you are) should figure out how to do that. I’m sorry I didn’t get a picture, especially since I had my camera in my tote bag. (re-duh!)

You should not take the above information to mean that I am not dedicated in my photography. I have figured out that the second best way to get a good photo (the first way is outside in shade) is to open the patio door and the screen and put the object just inside the door. I turn off the flash and set the camera on macro. Then I hold it as still as I can about 8 inches from the lovely object. I did that this afternoon, and I did not let the fact that snow was blowing in through the open door bother me. Much…

Beaded Button Workshop

On Monday evening, I did a beaded button workshop for our local sewing guild. There were 14 participants, a good sized group.
These are some of the works in progress.
Each person got a kit with fabric backed by lightweight, stable-in-all-directions interfacing, a button form, a beading needle, beading thread and a collection of at least ten different kinds of beads. Most of the beads were 11/0, with a few 8/0, 6/0, and other shapes.
I've found that, for me at least, it's easier to teach this when the fabric is backed by interfacing. Maybe that's because sewers are very familiar with interfacing.

Here are some of the finished buttons.

We only had abut 90 minutes to work, but most people got nearly finished or completely finished. They did a nice job, didn't they?
Our guest brought several little beaded bags to show us. They are just gorgeous. They are knitted, with more than 1500 11/0 seed beads on each one. The knitting needles are about the diameter of toothpicks. The bags are about two inches high.
Amazing, aren't they?

Beaded Pin

To the long list of things I don't know how to do, add the way to get this picture horizontal. AARGH!

If you want to get a better look at the pin-in-progress, lie down with your head to the right and look at it sideways. Pretend the curve is on the top and the straight edge is on the bottom.

I've now finished the picot stitch all the way around the top, attaching the ultrasuede backing to the pin. Next I will add some beaded fringe to the bottom. Then I will sew the pin back on--and I will sew it on so that the pin hangs the right way!

In the photo, the beads look more blue than they do in reality. It actually is a very dark pin, with differences in sparkle and shape showing rather than differences in color. Although the blue is nice, too.

And I'm still working on the photography part. I have learned about the macro mode (Is it a mode?) on the camera and I've played with flash and no flash. Now if we had some sun, I could try that, too.

I'd like to sign the back of the pin, but I haven't found anything that doesn't seem to rub off ultrasuede. Any suggestions?